Three front row gripes

While the new front certainly is sexy and smooth (no more several seconds transitions between menu alternatives), I've three annoyances to which I've managed to find no solution. Perhaps you fellas, the very heart and brain of the Apple fanbase, can help me out, or at least explain to me why these very important features have been removed or changed.
1. No resume function in movies: While watching iTunes music videos give me the option to resume the video from where I left off before, watching anything in my movies folder does not. This is incredibly confounding, if Apple configured the new front row to work in this way. Why would I want the option to resume watching a music video from where I left off, but not a movie?
2. The fast forward/rewind behaviour: is just terrible. The single click-and-hold forwards/rewinds far too slowly for most rewinding needs, the click-and-hold-and-click-again seems bugged (while the forward/rewind bar shows the movie position moving, the actual picture and the actual position in the movie only changes every half minute of rewinded/forwarded time, or so), and the click-and-hold-and-click twice and the single click (to jump) are both only useable for quickly skipping ahead for several minutes or more.
3. No moving previews: Not much to say besides the obvious. Whatever happened to moving previews?
So, if anyone knows of any solutions for any of these problems, I'll be a happy frontrower. If no solutions exist, then it would be interesting to know the rationale behind these implementations.

I second your gripes, but without your restraint; Front Row is a freakin' mess!
Okay, this really isn't an answer because only Apple can tell us why they all got stoopid and screwed up a perfectly lovely piece of software (I suspect it has something to do with the fact that FR now looks and acts suspiciously like the Apple TV interface and they probably use similar code so the programmers only update one code set).
However, it is important that we tell Apple, so: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
You should just send them your thoughtful and very well written post.
In the meantime, I have stumbled upon another thread that suggests replacing Front Row version 2 with Front Row version 1.3.1. Now, let me be clear: I HAVEN'T TRIED IT YET, but it looks like it might be worth a try.
Here's the thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1251292&tstart=0
Super important: Before you do this, read the ENTIRE thread through and practice safe computer hacking. Locate the Front Row 2 app in System>Library>Core Services and copy it to a safe place (desktop always seems a good place) before you try replacing it with version 1.3.1. That way, if the hack doesn't work, you can put version 2 back and restart.
If you're not the hacking type, which I admit can be scary, please send Apple your feedback. If enough of us suggest the changes, they might fix it. It worked with the semi-transparent menu bar, which, now that I've seen it, I wonder what all the fuss was about.

Similar Messages

Big Mini Trouble with DVD and Front Row

Set-Up
I am trying to use my mac mini as a media centre connected to a 42" sharp aquos 1080HD, for sound i use a 5.1 bose speaker set-up, which is irrelevant to my problem, but the mac interfaces with a yamaha rxv661B 7.1 channel digital home theatre receiver, via DVI to HDMI and sound through head phone to RCA set-up that will soon be upgraded to optical. All connected to the appropriate DVD channels on the recevier, video goes to the TV via HDMI. My set-up has no DVD player other than the super drive on the mac mini, the only other input is a Bell ExpressVu 9200 PVR.
My Problem
1. Playing DVDs the brightness on the picture fluctuates in a very regular wave like pulse. What am I doing wrong?
2. Front Row Crashes the computer whenever I try to access any of the movie files. The files play fine when accessed directly or through itunes but crash the system in front row. DVDs play, and the online movie clips play, and music and picture content are no problem.
Any help would be much appreciated
As an aside does anyone know if youtube will be available to non Apple-TV front row users, as well?
Mini 1.83 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 12" Powerbook G4

Everything is plugged into a three pronged plug using a relatively sophisticated surge protecting power bar, but you may be on to something, the power bar has a light to indicate if it is properly grounded and that has not lit up since its been in use, perhaps the outlet isn't properly grounded, I live in a recently renovated 100yr old home.
As for the files they are a mixture of mpg, mov and a number of m4v (that might be my postal not a file format) I mean the ipod format, a lot of the video files I produce I put directly into the ipod ready format.

Start up front row in specific folder?

Tried to search around the forum, but couldn't find anything.
Is there any way to make front row in a certain folder? Like Videos / Television / CSI...

Thanks Matt, guessed that this was the problem but it is good to have a second opinion, fortunately yes I have time machine running so I have everything i need backed up. Thinking about it I am more upset at the fact the drive has failed after only 19 months. Having got three years minimum out of all my previous machines am disappointed that the Mac has gone so quick. Never mind at least I have all my files.
Cheers

Front Row on mac mini: We need some fixes

Been having fun playing with my mac mini and trying it out as a home media center, to network and play all my shared media that's on my iMac G5 and enjoy it on my 32" LCD TV and stereo system.
There are three major glitches that keep this from working perfectly, and hopefully Apple will have a fix for these soon:
1. When you want to view your shared pics as a slideshow, Front Row is not able to remember and use the music settings that you have assigned to your albums in iPhoto. It can only use music for the slideshows that originates on the mini. There is no choosing from the Shared Music in the slideshow preferences, and therefore no option to, like on an iPod, to have your slideshow music setting set to "From iPhoto".
2. Front Row keeps insisiting and changing even saved settings for slideshow playaback, always reverting back to using Jesu Joy...from the Sample Music folder, and displaying images with the Ken Burns effect. I have tried changing these setting on both computers's iPhoto settings, and yet Front Row resets them, if not immediately, upon the next opening.
3. I cannot get any movie that I did not purchase off of iTunes to play through the networked connection. It seems that it cannot stream anything much longer or bigger than an iPod sized music video or movie trailer. I couldn't even get the TV show episodes I have in iTunes to work. Trying to play a full length movie resulted in FrontRow hanging forever and me having to Force Quit or restart. Many of the full length movies I had ripped from DVDs to mp4s I did at a larger size than the 320 iPod screen size, so that when I played them back on a large display they would look better. These movies are formatted right and do play in iTunes as well as on my iPod, and from my iPod to TV with the AV cables, but not through the wireless networked mac mini.
If we can get these things straightened out, it is a pretty great home media device.

Jim,
Isn't Front Row awesome and full of promise! I just needed a new mini and got this to play with in the mix. Looks like I need two mini since this one is going under the TV.
Now to your glitches. Remember front row is simply an agent that listens for remote commands and sends them to other applications to do the heavy lifting/dirty work.
1. I think this is really a problem with the version of iPhoto that has the photos. I'm not a guru of iPhoto, but I know of no way to change the defaults for a new slideshow. All the shows I create (either in iPhoto or via front row requesting a slide show on the fly) initially default to Automatic Ken Burns and the Jesu.... soundtrack ( a great piece of music no doubt, but woefully overplayed at the moment for my tastes.) I have no problems once I go into iPhoto and set the slide show prefernces the way I like and quit/re-start iPhoto. I don't know if there is another way to save the settings for a slide show, but quitting seems to do the trick for me.
2. I'm not catching anything new here. Are you sure your settings were saved - (i.e. could you start iPhoto on "source" computer and play the slide show immediately and get the music and settings you changed?) Sorry to question you but I just can't think anything else here. Front row is simply asking iTunes (either locally or remotely) to play the show or create one if it does not exist. Perhaps the way it is asking is different for you - I have a weird mix of software levels (iPhoto 5 on my remote mac and iPhoto 6 on my mini) - but I cannot reproduce the symptom you mentioned to try to see what happened.
3. This could be a network issue (or a too much stuff to fit in the sock.) What is the data rate for one of the movies that causes you issues? Is that rate more than your network will allow? Front Row doesn't seem to be that graceful at the moment when network pauses or fails. It will wait a long time to time out the operation and I get to watch that circular throbber a lot. Open up the Activity Monitor (it's in Applications / Utilities folder). Play the movie locally from a hard disk. Look at the Disk Activity tab at the bottom. It will give you an idea of how much data needs to be read from disk to play the movie. Then change to the network tab. Go to the other computer and play the movie. Return to the first computer and see how much data manages to get sent. (It's best to quit all other applications when measuring - this tool shows all activity on the mac - not just the movie...) I have a lot of movies that have way too much data to send wirelessly. I'm going to upgrade my home switch to gigabit and wire things to that to serve my needs.
Good luck - let me know if I misunderstood anything - but I'm guessing front row already does what you want and there are some workarounds or other issues of learning how to set things up to give you that pretty great home media device you want.

Front Row strange behavior

Hello, there.
I have recently bought a 27-inch Core i5 iMac to replace my old 2.66GHZ Core 2 Duo 20-inch model.
As I try to use Front Row with my new Apple Remote (it worked before with my old iMac), everytime I roll down the lists (Artists, Songs, ...) it rolls back automatically to the Artist which is playing, not allowing me to select another Artist or even roll down more than three lines. What happens?
I have also paired the remote on system preferences but it didn't resolve the issue.
Can anybody please help me?
Thanks in advance,
Diego.

Thanks a lot for answering my topic.
Yes, I did install the 10.6.4 update and the all the content works perfectly within iTunes, which is the latest version (9.2.1). About the scrolldown on Front Row, even if I use the Apple Wireless Keyboard or the Remote the software does the same thing as I wrote on the first post of the topic.
Is there anything that I can do to solve this?

Front Row Automatically Switch to 2nd Display

It's a gripe of mine that Front Row couldn't automagically be sent to a 2nd monitor in Tiger; is this fixed in Leopard?
Basically, I have a 19" Samsung LCD plugged in via DVI to my MacBook Pro, and I'd like to have Front Row on it, but the main menu/dock on my MacBook Pro's screen. I know I can open up Displays in System Preferences and rearrange them to get Front Row on the external, but this seems to be an annoying thing to deal with. Is there any other way?

Well, after many hours of research, I found that I could design some AppleScripts or programs to help do this, but (a) I don't have the time to invest in that, and (b) I will simply resort to DVD player. Front Row is nice, but without the ability to go through a 2nd monitor, it's pretty much useless to me, because there's no way I'll sit back from my computer and use the Apple Remote to navigate a movie on a 15" screen, when I have a 22" screen right next to it.

Front Row has ALL video files in "Movies" list. WHY?

This is ridiculous! I have never had this problem before, but now it is out of hand. In Front Row under the "Movies" list, along with the movies that I have purchased from the iTunes store, every single video help file from various applications on my iMac are now in that list. What the heck is going on? Why is that happening? How can I make the list go back to just including movies that I have purchased from the iTunes store? PLEASE HELP! PLEASE!

Front Row looks in three places for movie files: iTunes in your user's account, iTunes libraries that are shared on the network and inside your user's "Movies" folder. If the movies are in your user's "Movies" folder, they'll appear in Front Row. This is the way that Front Row has worked from the beginning, it's not new. Are all the video help files inside your "Movies" folder? If so, I don't think there's a way to make them go away. Your applications may need them to be there, but I've never heard of any video help files like that before.
-Doug

Slideshows are Choppy in Front Row

Hi all, thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
I can view slideshows smoothly when played directly from iphoto. However, when I view the same slideshow from within Front Row, there is a slow down when transitioning from one image to the next. This means the show gets out of sync with the music. I use the slideshows for my business, so this is unacceptable.
I'm fairly certain that this started happening with I upgraded to from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
Any ideas on what I could try to fix this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Have you also inquired over in the Front Row forum? Your situation hasn't been discussed before here as far as I can tell.
Try clearing out iPhoto's cache folder, User/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto, and rebuild the library's database, backup and launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed to rebuild the library. Select the last three options.
Click to view full size
See if that makes any difference.
If the slideshows are critical you might want to consider creating them as QT movies so the music stays in sync and playing the movies in Front Row.

Front Row or ATV2

I have a mac mini 2009, I am considering selling and getting an ATV2 to use, as I only use for streaming. Is the new interface for ATV2 the same as Front Row?

I've got three new Apple TVs and the experience is MUCH better than Front Row. The UI is a bit nicer on the eyes and far more informative (there's more details for media) and, of course, you get a beautiful Netflix interface. Really, it's a shame that Front Row hasn't been updated to match the Apple TV experience since, I imagine, quite a few people use the two together.
Then again, it's a shame that Front Row hasn't been updated at all. It's really languishing.

Having problems with front row (and the opticle drive)

I bought my macbook three days ago, and I'm already having problems. First off, I transfered music from my user profile on my old iMac G5 to the macbook via data DVD. My music collection had some purchaces from the itunes store, so I had to go through the authorization thing, and I can now play them just fine in the iTunes library, but the problem is, if I try to use the front row program to play my purchaced music, I get the message saying that I have to authorize it first. What the ****? Does anybody else have this problem? Also, like many other macbook users, I'm having problems with the opticle drive, such as getting cds to be recognized and other things of that nature.

I noticed that this problem started after I tried to use a software to unlock my drive's region...
I believe this is the problem. The VLC Media Player will usually play DVDs from other regions without changing the settings on your optical drive. You may need to reset your optical drive's firmware back to the original setting, make sure you have the region set for the one you'd prefer to use the most and then use VLC to play the other DVDs.
-Doug
P.S. After two years in the Front Row forum, I'm not sure I've ever heard of anyone playing HDDVD_TS folders with Front Row. I'm not saying it won't work, but I'm not sure it's really supported either. I do have DVD Studio Pro myself, but I'll have friends or family staying with me for nearly the next month, so my evenings and weekends will be a bit full to try making one up for testing...

Front Row Installer

Recently I crashed my system when I messing around with terminal trying to enable smart card login on my Intel iMac.
I had to reinstall the OS (archive install) and during the reinstall process the installer hangs up on the last step (some iWeb script on disc 2). I attempted this three more times and the same thing always happens. The second disc would never finish with the install. I finally had to reinstall just the basic system on disc 1 and not install any of the software on disc 2 for the installer to finish. The process only took me 23 hours!
Everything is working fine now and I didn't lose any of my files, but now front row is missing. I've looked all over the web for some kind of front row installer but I can't find one.
Does anyone know if Apple still publishes the Front Row installer (1.0) and/or why is the second disc of the system installer always hanging up?
Any comments or help would be much appreciated. Thank you.
iMac (intel) 20 inch Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I don't know where is the Front Row Installer, but you could try to find it in the second CD, and if you find it, try to install it alone.
This kind of problem is usually caused by dirty or damaged media.
Is there anything logged in Console.ap when you try to install something on the second CD ?
Why reward points ?

Front Row & Mac Pro Tower Issues

Hi
I am trying to use Front Row on my early '09 Pro Tower and when I go to get Movie Trailers all it tells me is that I am NOT connected to the internet - which is incorrect.
Any ideas what is going on here??
Thanks so much

Under 10.9.2, the rule was that any "Legacy" Adapter after the first two required ACTIVE (read: Powered) adapters. The built-in HDMI, if used, counts as One.
Any DVI over 1920 wide requires a Dual-Link DVI adapter -- Dual-Link means the signal lines (three push-pull Drivers = 6 more wires) must be present in every adapter, cable, and connector.

Hiding Movies from Front Row

I have a couple of 'adult' themed .mp4 and they show up in front row regardless of where I move their folder location. The names of the files are generic however a thumbnail of the content shows up and very much gives away what they are.
Is there anyway to place these .mp4 somewhere that is more private?
thanks

Front Row looks in three places for videos: You iTunes, your user's "Movies" folder and in the "Sources" option that looks for other computers with iTunes sharing turned on. If you movies aren't in iTunes, you can move them from your "Movies" folder and put them somewhere like your "Documents" folder. They'll still play with the QuickTime Player application (or other video player utility). If you have QuickTime Pro you could add one last frame that's different and set that as the "Poster frame". Then the preview would be that frame and not something else...
-Doug

IPhoto Slide Shows are Choppy in Front Row

Hi all, thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
I can view slideshows smoothly when played directly from iphoto (08). However, when I view the same slideshow from within Front Row, there is a slow down when transitioning from one image to the next. This means the show gets out of sync with the music. I use the slideshows for my business, so this is unacceptable.
I'm fairly certain that this started happening with I upgraded to from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
Any ideas on what I could try to fix this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Have you also inquired over in the Front Row forum? Your situation hasn't been discussed before here as far as I can tell.
Try clearing out iPhoto's cache folder, User/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto, and rebuild the library's database, backup and launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed to rebuild the library. Select the last three options.
Click to view full size
See if that makes any difference.
If the slideshows are critical you might want to consider creating them as QT movies so the music stays in sync and playing the movies in Front Row.

Front Row doesn't know about multi-disc albums?

So, here is an odd one. Suppose you have an album that has three discs in them. In iTunes, I have input the appropriate disc numbers and track numbers for each track. When I go to play the album in Front Row, front row ignores the disc numbers, arranges all tracks by track numbers, and then sorts by title within track number. For example:
Disc 1
1: Song 1
2: Song 2
Disc 2
1: Song 5
2: Song 6
Disc 3
1: Song 10
2: Song 11
When playing such a three disc album, front row will play them in the following order:
D1T1 Song1
D3T1 Song 10
D2T1 Song 5
D3T2 Song 11
D1T2 Song 2
D2T2 Song 6
This seems like an incredibly silly way to do things. Espcially when for some albums playing consecutive tracks contiguously is a must (in a lot of classical music, for example).
Powermac G5

I'm not sure what the difference between the ID3 tag and the visible song info is. (Sorry for my ignorance.)
Basically, all the info (disk number, track number, song title) were input into the appropriate fields in iTunes' song info. All files are Apple Lossless files. The only thing that is visible in Frontrow are the titles (like "Song 1").

Three front row gripes

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